Category Archives: Fitness

Short and Sweet Workout Week (or Taking It A Bit Easy)

Posted on June 29, 2015 | 1 comment

I “only” got 3 workouts in this week (I count my weeks from Sunday-Saturday). I was able to do my usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday workouts and that was all that I did.

I put only in parenthesis because that’s a pretty darn impressive amount. I remember when I started my partnership with Orangetheory pretty much exactly a year ago and was so scared to do 3 workouts in a week. Now that seems like a break to me!

I would have done more workouts this week, but I didn’t want to do one the Sunday that started the week because I was recovering from my beach workout (and doing that would have made it 4 workouts in a row). And I didn’t go on Saturday because I had something else I had scheduled (more on that later this week). And doing workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays are still a bit tough for me when I’m doing my regular workout schedule because that means that I will have 3 workout days in a row. I can do 3 workouts in a row if I have to, but I’d rather not at this point.

I’m still continuing to test myself on the treadmill and see what my limits really are. I’m getting quite comfortable at 3.5 miles an hour on the treadmill. And when I’m in push paces, I’m almost always going up to 3.6 or 3.7 miles an hour. For some reason though, those faster speeds are much more difficult for me at my “flat road” of 4% incline than they are at 8 or 10% incline. I’m hoping by the end of summer that I can start doing 3.6 miles an hour at 4% incline on a more regular basis. I still have a goal time in my head for my next 5K and to do that time I need to be at 3.7 during my workouts. My 5Ks seem to be faster than my treadmill times (maybe adrenaline or maybe because it’s a real flat road) so if I’m doing 3.7 miles per hour at my workout I know I can hit my goal time.

I’ve also made some significant progress on the rowing machine this week. I don’t know what clicked for me, but I’m finally doing what the minimum wattage should be (before I was at maybe 70% of what the minimum should be).

I also got to work out next to one of the owners, Paul, during my Wednesday workout. He made a comment about how much improvement he’s seen in me since my first workout. He remembers how I could barely walk after that first workout. And now I’m kicking some serious butt in class!

It’s nice to have someone notice improvement in me. I still don’t think it’s showing in my body (and it’s definitely not showing on the scale). So to have someone point out improvement or progress to me unprompted proves that even though I’m not seeing it in the way that I’d like to.

Having a 3 workout week was a nice break for me, but this coming week is going to be a crazy one. I haven’t decided for sure yet, but it may end up being my very first 5 workout week! And now that I’ve said that publicly on here, I feel like I have to do it!

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Default ThumbnailRecovery and Preparation (or Back To A 3 Workout Week) Default ThumbnailA Short Workout Week (or I Would Have Ended On A High Note) Default ThumbnailA Short Workout Week (or 3 Workouts In 3 Different Locations) Default ThumbnailShort Workout Week (or Finding Ways To Fit It All In) Default ThumbnailStruggling Sucks (or Thank Goodness It Was A Short Workout Week) Default ThumbnailA Very Short Workout Week (or Having Some Sick Days)

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Feeling New Aches And Pains (or Working On More Pain Management)

Posted on June 25, 2015 | Comments Off on Feeling New Aches And Pains (or Working On More Pain Management)

I’ve gotten pretty decent at managing my hip pain. I’ve been dealing with this for almost 10 years now (this coming October will mark 10 years since I collapsed in an airport and the pain started). I have a routine with painkillers and while that has changed a bit because I need to limit narcotic painkillers on Vyvanse, I’m still pretty on top of things.

But with all my workouts plus other things in life, I’m having more pain and having trouble managing it (which in turn makes my hip pain feel worse). Some of the pain is from things that I know I need to deal with. My muscles feel sore after workouts, especially when I’m pushing it with the weights I’m using. Right now, I’m dealing with a lot of shoulder pain in my right shoulder. I’m guessing it’s a combination of my workouts and maybe sleeping weirdly.

I’m also dealing with foot/toe/ankle pain. I’m guessing that that is partly due to the increased speed on the treadmill during my workouts. But it’s also probably due to me marching in place every day to make sure I get my steps in. Walking for hours at Disneyland didn’t help that either.

The rest of the pain that I’m experiencing is stuff that I know is temporary (and somewhat out of my control). Mainly sunburn soreness and feeling sickly (which makes me achy) because of the heat wave.

I’m still working on getting my mind to think about pain differently. It’s not something to stop me and make me take a break all the time. Of course, sometimes that’s exactly what pain means. But I used to always stop when I have any pain and that would prevent me from attempting to work out.

I’m not giving myself that excuse anymore. I’ve become the master at modifying my workouts. And I just have to keep that mindset for other things. Just because my feet are sore, that doesn’t mean that I can’t get my 10,000 steps done. It just means that it might take me all day instead of being able to get them all done in the morning (and then working toward 15,000 for the rest of the day). It might hurt to type with my shoulder pain (it’s weird, but true) but I have to push through it and try to take typing breaks when I can.

I know that pain is temporary, and I just have to keep telling myself that. And most of the pain I’m feeling is because I’m working so hard on improving myself and soon I won’t feel the pain anymore with similar activities.

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Default ThumbnailFiguring Out My Pain (or Staying Calm While Stressing Out) Default ThumbnailInjury After Injury (or I Swear It’s Not Because I’m A Klutz) Default ThumbnailDoubling Up On Pain (or Physical and Mental Pain Together) Default ThumbnailStill Working Through The Pain (or I’m Going To Stay Positive About This) Default ThumbnailFeeling The Pain With The Weather (or The Full Story About My Hip Problems) Default ThumbnailPain Distracts From Other Pain (or The Rain Isn’t Too Bad This Time)

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Workout On The Beach (or Meeting The TIU Trainers)

Posted on June 23, 2015 | 2 comments

A little while ago, I saw an event on Facebook for the Summer Shape Up that Shape Magazine was doing in Hermosa Beach. The event seemed pretty cool on its own. But when I saw that Katrina and Karena, the trainers who created Tone It Up, were teaching 2 different workout classes, I knew I had to go!

I really wanted to go to a bunch of classes (included both of the Tone It Up ones), but due to my work schedule, I was only able to make it for the final class of the event which was the second Tone It Up workout.

I drove down to Hermosa Beach right after my work shift ended. It was a gorgeous Saturday at the beach, so of course parking was very difficult to find. I searched for about 90 minutes before I managed to find a space. But the space I found was in the shade and less than a block from the event space.

Hermosa Beach Summer Shape Up

I got checked it really quickly and got my wristband for my class. Then I went in search for some of my TIU friends. I found them about 10 minutes later in line for the meet and greet with Katrina and Karena. My meet and greet time was after my class, so I stood off to the side while my friends did the meet and greets and took some photos for them.

Since everyone else had just finished a workout in the hot sun, they all wanted to get something refreshing to eat before the next class. So a bunch of us walked a few blocks away to a juice bar where we got some really delicious smoothies. And by the time we all finished our drinks, it was time to head back over to the workout area to line up for our class.

We ended up being toward the back of the line, but we were able to find spaces to put our things down almost dead center of the workout space.

Workout

I liked being at the back because I didn’t feel too claustrophobic. But as one of my TIU friends mentioned, being at the back meant while we did squat work that everyone on the pathway behind us were looking at our butts.

I really tried my best with the workout. A lot of things were things that I couldn’t do because of my hips, but I made my own modifications. Also, the sun was very strong and I was sweating like crazy and feeling a little sick from the heat. But even with those issues, I feel like a got a very nice workout in.

And Katrina and Karena were so fun teaching the class! They had great energy and were very encouraging of all of us. It’s one thing doing workout videos that they have posted online, but to do one in person is a whole other thing!

After the workout was done, those of us who didn’t do the earlier meet and greet (or who did the earlier one and wanted to do the second one) lined up. Again, we were toward the back of the line, but it worked to our advantage.

Katrina and Karena

When it was my turn, I got to tell Katrina and Karena about my blog and how I blog about my fitness journey. They seemed to love the name of my blog and said that they wanted to check it out. There were professional photos taken as well, but since I haven’t gotten them yet I just have the photo that my TIU friend took for me.

Katrina and Karena

After my turn was over, I was chatting with some people right next to the meet and greet area. One of the people in the group is the boyfriend of one of the trainers and he was very nice. We chatted about Disneyland a bit. Since I was toward the end of the line, Katrina and Karena finished the meet and greets while I was still standing there. And they came over to me to confirm the name of my blog so they could check it out. I gave them one of my cards so they could have that as a reminder (Hi Katrina and Karena if you are reading this!).

After that, it was time for me to head home. I had a bunch of stuff I needed to get done. So as much as I wanted to turn the afternoon into a beach day (I do keep an emergency beach kit in my car), I had to make the drive home.

As soon as I got home, I checked out the swag bag that Shape gave us.

Swag Bag

It is pretty awesome! I’m really looking forward to checking out the workout DVDs and trying Shakeology again (last time I tried, it made me very sick).

The only negative to the entire adventure was that despite putting sunscreen on and reapplying a few times while I was outside, I still ended up looking like this.

Sunburn

Definitely not as bad as my last bad burn, but I hate knowing that I did damage to my skin. I’m not sure why I’m burning easier than I have in the past, but I’m going to see my dermatologist at the end of summer for a mole check (there are a couple that have been watched for a couple of years) and see if there is something I can do to help prevent this (other than staying out of the sun completely or being totally covered up).

I’m so glad that I had a chance to do the workout with Katrina and Karena. Not only was it a fun workout, I got to have a fun adventure and see my TIU friends. It looks like this event is an annual one, and I hope that Tone It Up is a part of it again next year!

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Keep Pushing (or Why Was I So Scared Before?)

Posted on June 22, 2015 | Comments Off on Keep Pushing (or Why Was I So Scared Before?)

This past week of workouts was almost like a breakthrough for me. I wrote about how last week I finally got above 3.4 miles an hour on the treadmill. That was so huge for me. For so long I felt stuck there (even though I wasn’t at that speed for a very long time) and 3.5 miles an hour seemed so out of my reach.

After doing it on the treadmill the week before, I decided to try to continue my progress. And I was able to almost always be at 3.5 miles an hour on the treadmill (except for when we were supposed to walk after an all-out pace). Not only did I do that, I was occasionally going to 3.6 miles an hour.

My issue in the past was getting to the orange zone during the push paces. I was usually at 10% incline because if I wasn’t that steep my heart rate wouldn’t get high enough. Now that I can play around with the speed on the treadmill a bit more, I’m able to get into the orange zone at 8 or 9% incline (usually at the beginning of the workout I have to do 10% just to get my heart rate to get up at first).

3.5 or 3.6 miles an hour on the treadmill isn’t easy, but it’s definitely doable. I don’t know why I was so worried about it in the past. I honestly think I could have gone to 3.5 miles an hour at least a month ago. But there was something about that number that terrified me. And now that I’ve proven to myself that I am able to do it, I feel much more comfortable increasing my speed throughout my workout. I’d love to eventually be at 4.0 miles an hour so I would feel comfortable doing a race at Disneyland (they have pretty strict time restrictions on their races), so with the progress I’ve made so far, I’m almost half way to that goal!

I also did another thing that scared me in my workouts last week. With all my hip issues, I have a lot of balance issues as well. So for core strength work that involves balance, I usually get a modification to do instead. There are several things that I still can’t do (step ups on the bench are almost impossible because my hips don’t want to bend that much), but I’m trying to do more things that feel a bit safer to me.

On Friday’s workout, one of the strength movements was doing squats on the BOSU (flat side down). I’ve done those in the past, but only before my hip surgery when my balance was a bit more normal. Since then, I’ve avoided most balance things on the BOSU because there is a lot of risk for me to fall off and hurt myself. But I was at the strength station near the wall so I moved my BOSU close to the wall so I could steady myself on that.

It took me awhile once I got on the BOSU to get my balance, but after about 15 seconds or so, I was able to take my hand off the wall and do a couple of squats while standing on the BOSU. We were supposed to do 20 and I broke it up into smaller segments. After about 5 I would put my hand on the wall again to balance myself before moving on.

But even though I had to do the 20 squats in smaller chunks, I still did all of my squats on the BOSU that day. My hips were killing me afterwards, but it was worth it!

Beyond my workout victories, I also had some fun moments in my workout week. About a week ago, I decided to order a cute Orangetheory shirt that I saw online. I ordered it in the largest size that they had and it arrived this week.

Eat Sleep OTF

It’s a little small for me, but not so small that it’s discouraging. So hopefully I can wear this for a workout soon (maybe for the workout closest to my birthday!).

The other super fun part of my workout week was having two of my favorite trainers, Bruce and Lal, participate in JZ’s class on Wednesday. Sadly, they couldn’t be on treadmills next to me (since they have to wait until the class starts to see if there will be room for them in the class), but it’s still nice to have them there supporting and encouraging me.

Of course, I made them take a post-workout photo with me.

Bruce and Lal

Now that I appear to have broken the 3.4 miles an hour boundary that was in my head, I’m really getting excited to see what new things I can accomplish on the treadmill. I’ve got a 5K coming up in November and I’m looking at some speed training schedules online to see if there is one that would work well with my Orangetheory workouts. If I can keep this all up, there’s no doubt in my mind that in November I will be blogging about yet another PR!

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Workout Clothes Addict (or Didn’t I Used To Complain About Workout Clothes?)

Posted on June 18, 2015 | 1 comment

I’ve talked about my love/hate relationship with workout clothes on here before. I’m still super annoyed that a majority of workout clothes do not come in my size (or even close to my size). I’m always seeing really cute workout clothes and they claim they come in larger sizes. But more often than not, those “larger” sizes are up to size 12.

That’s just stupid.

Fortunately, Old Navy still continues to make workout clothes in my size. And they are getting more and more options for workout clothes. So my workout clothes collection is getting pretty decent.

Workout Clothes

And of course, Old Navy was doing a pretty awesome online sale over the weekend so I ordered a bunch of new workout clothes. I’m trying to find more bottoms that are something other than black. I do have one pair of printed workout capris, but I don’t have a top that goes with it. So I also ordered a plain white workout top so that I can wear that with the patterned pants.

I have had to expand my workout clothes collection in the past because I was working out more and more. When I only had 3 pairs of workout pants, I couldn’t work out 4 days in a week unless I wanted to do an extra load of laundry in the middle of the week.

I’m also finding that I’m wearing my workout clothes more often than “normal” clothes. On the days that I work out in the afternoon, I wear my workout clothes for the day. When I wake up, I put on my workout clothes and wear those while I’m working. Then I go and work out and when I get home I shower and put on pajamas for the evening. So I don’t wear regular clothes then. And on my off days, I’m usually in workout pants and a shirt because I’m just going to be sitting at my desk for several hours. Also, being in workout clothes makes it easier for me to get in my steps for the day (usually done while standing in front of the tv or computer).

I never thought I’d be the person who lives in yoga pants, but I really am becoming that person. Some of it is due to laziness, but honestly I feel more confident and happier in my workout clothes (or at least my workout capris/pants) than I do in my regular clothes. I know that this should be a bad thing, but my workout clothes don’t make me feel like I have fat or skinny days in my clothes. I know that some people say you shouldn’t live in stretchy pants because you won’t notice when you gain weight, but for me I need to not notice those little changes. It can be due to so many things and I don’t want a weight gain due to salt or something make me think I’ve screwed it all up and then eat a bunch of food. These pants almost help me feel a sense of normalcy.

Obviously there are plenty of times I have to get dressed in real clothes and go out into the world. But I really don’t see a problem with being in clothes that are both comfortable and make me feel good. Soon, my workout clothes will overtake regular clothes in my closet, and I’m good with that.

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Daily PRs (or I Did Reach My Peak Performance)

Posted on June 15, 2015 | 3 comments

This past week was a 4 workout week (yay!), but I just want to talk about my first 3 workouts of the week.

Monday-Friday was Peak Performance Week at Orangetheory. Every day there was a difference challenge (almost like the Monday Challenges) and the goal was to push yourself to go the most you could do. And the top people each day got a prize.

I knew that there would be no way for me to rank #1 in the challenges so I was only competing against myself. I like that I wasn’t stressed about competing against others so I could really focus on myself.

Monday’s task was 24 minutes on the treadmill for distance. I really didn’t have a goal distance for this one. I just knew that I wanted to do my best and since this was the first time I had done a 24 minute distance challenge that whatever I get would be considered a PR. In my dreams, I would love to have been as close to 1.55 miles because that is half of a 5K, but that would have meant that my speed would have been significantly faster than anything I’ve done.

The first 3 minutes of the 24 minute distance time was at a push pace, which for me meant 10% incline. I was at 3.4 miles an hour and after those 3 minutes were done I went back to my “flat road” of 4% incline. Then I decided to see if I could go 3.5 miles an hour for more than a minute or two. So I bumped up the speed to 3.5 at 4% incline. 2 minutes went by and I was feeling good so I decided to go close to a push pace again at 8% incline (still at 3.5 miles an hour).

I did the last 21 minutes of the challenge at 3.5 miles an hour alternating between 4 and 8% incline. The final minute I kept bumping up the speed because I saw that it might be possible to get to 1.4 miles in 24 minutes. In the end, I didn’t quite make it.

OTF Distance

But even if I didn’t go quite as far as I thought I would, I still did 21 minutes at 3.5 miles an hour! I’ve been working toward that goal for a while and I finally made it!

Wednesday’s challenge was a plank challenge. I used to be amazing at planks. I remember back when I was losing weight for my hip surgery that my personal trainer was always amazing that I could hold a plank for what seemed like an endless time. But after my hip surgery, I could barely hold a plank for any amount of time. It has to do with how my hips sit when in that position. It causes my bones to rest against each other in an awkward and uncomfortable position.

Since I struggle with planks, I didn’t have a ton of expectations for this challenge. I didn’t want to be the first person to drop, but beyond that I didn’t know what I could do. My trainer wanted me to make it 90 seconds, so I figured I’d try for that. I don’t have any photos from my attempt (I was busy holding my plank), but I did manage to hold it for 2 minutes exactly!

While I was pretty happy with my plank time, I hated what happened to the rest of my workout. Because of the pain from the plank (the plank was the first thing in the workout), I was struggling to just walk after that. I wanted to go back to 3.5 miles an hour, but my hip was catching and the pain was making me tear up. So I went back to 3.4 miles an hour and just tried to focus on walking and not quitting. I hate when my hip issues cause problems like this, but I need to know that the pain and discomfort is temporary and won’t be there for all my workouts.

For the final day of Peak Performance Week, we had a 1 mile run (or for me, 1 mile walk). I didn’t know what my PR for a treadmill walk would be, but I looked at my fastest 5K time and the mile time that went with that. That mile time was 17:23 so my plan was to just be faster than that. I really wanted it to be under 17 minutes, but I would have been happy with even 17:22. Just anything that proves I’m making progress.

I did the entire mile at my “flat road” of 4% incline and started at 3.5 miles an hour. At about .3 miles in, I decided that I’d try to bump it up some more (I know, I’m crazy). I went to 3.6 miles an hour at that point. Then the coach bugged me that I needed to bump up my speed some more so I promised that I would try to bump it up another .1 miles an hour at .7 miles in. And as I promised, I did just that.

When I was at .9 miles in I realized that I was easily going to get a mile PR time and that it might be possible to beat my old PR by a minute! So I kept bumping it up bit by bit as I got closer to the mile mark. In the end, I got up to 4.2 miles an hour but that was crazy fast and uncomfortable for me.

But I did manage to get another PR this week with my mile time.

OTF 1 Mile

53 seconds faster than my mile time at my last 5K! That’s pretty amazing! The only thing I wonder is if I could maintain this speed for 3.1 miles and not just 1 mile. Also, I do have the advantage in my races by being at a real flat road and not my 4% flat road. So I have no idea what this means for my 5K time just yet.

But no matter how this relates to my 5K time, this is still faster on the treadmill than I was going before my last 5K. So I feel pretty confident that by the time November gets here (when I’m doing my next 5K), that I should be able to get another race PR.

I really feel good about how I did during Peak Performance Week. I definitely pushed myself to do better than I have in the past and I’ve proved to myself that maybe my mind has been holding me back when my body was ready to be pushed. I’m hoping that I can maintain 3.5 miles an hour for my treadmill workouts. If I can’t maintain it for my entire workout I at least know now that I can start there and go back down if I have to.

I’m hoping that Orangetheory will do another Peak Performance Week soon. I really liked it and it really motivated me to keep pushing my workouts to be better and better.

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1 Year Of Going Orange (or Anniversary Celebrations)

Posted on June 8, 2015 | Comments Off on 1 Year Of Going Orange (or Anniversary Celebrations)

I was headed to my Orangetheory workout on Monday when I got a notification of an email from Orangetheory. My first thought was that maybe class was cancelled due to some weird reason or the parking garage was closed and they were giving us a heads up.

But instead, this is what it said:

1 Year Of OTF

It’s true, June 1st marked 1 year since my very first Orangetheory workout! One year ago I did a workout that made it tough for me to walk for several days after! I wondered at the time if I would ever do the workout again or if I could even do it on a semi-regular basis. But I decided to take a chance and see what could happen.

One year and over 150 workouts later, I’m much stronger and healthier. When I started I was using mainly 8 or 10 pound weights. Now, I’m using 15 pounds weights for most things (and 20 pound weights for deadlifts and occasionally squats). When I started I was going 3.0 miles an hour. I remember when I started going 3.1 miles an hour and how proud I was of myself because that meant that I could do a 5K in an hour again. Now, I’m at 3.4 miles an hour on the treadmill and I’m hoping that within a month I will start doing 3.5 miles an hour a little bit in my workout.

I can’t believe that a year has passed since that first workout. In one way, it seems like just a month or so ago that I struggled through that workout. But at the same time, it’s hard remembering what life was like where I didn’t spend almost every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday working out.

I was on a high for my Monday workout knowing that it was my 1 year anniversary at Orangetheory. I really wanted to try getting my treadmill faster for that workout, but my body just wasn’t having it. But I was just happy to spend my 1 year anniversary at Orangetheory doing a workout there. That seemed right to me.

Not only was it my 1 year anniversary with Orangetheory, Friday marked 1 year since the grand opening of the location I go to (I started before the grand opening since I went to a pre-opening bloggers event)!

All day on Friday they had special things at the studio to celebrate.

OTF Party

Since I was working during the day, I missed out on the taco truck. But they did have snacks and drinks after my 4pm workout. And during my workout they had a live DJ doing the music for the class (the DJ classes are a pretty regular thing but they usually aren’t at the times that I go).

Everyone was in a very festive mood at the workout and that helped make the workout go by a little faster.

And since this week started off my second year at Orangetheory, I figured I should get 4 workouts in for the week instead of 3. I’m hoping that 4 workouts will soon be the norm and I’m working on finding exactly when in my schedule I can do them. But this past week it worked out well to go on Saturday after my box office shift was done.

The Saturday workout was a bit tough, but that was mainly because we didn’t rotate between the treadmill and the floor until the halfway point. Even though I’m more used to the extended treadmill time, I still don’t love having 24 minutes on the treadmill without a break on the floor doing weights (or when it’s a run/row and you break up the treadmill time with rowing).

I think that my 4 workout week was a great way to start my 2nd year at Orangetheory. I’m impressed that I got over 150 workouts in for my first year (especially since I wasn’t doing 4 workouts a week until a few months in). My goal for 2015 is to do 175 workouts, and I am on track for that. But maybe I can beat that goal for year 2 of Orangetheory!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

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Some Progress and Some Setbacks (or Trying To Set New Workout Goals)

Posted on June 1, 2015 | Comments Off on Some Progress and Some Setbacks (or Trying To Set New Workout Goals)

I thought that this past week of workouts were pretty successful at first. While I only did 3 workouts, I worked really hard at them and even though I wasn’t able to increase my weights or my treadmill speeds yet, I’m feeling like I’m getting close.

Again, this week was a lot of rowing, but I’m happy with that because I feel like I’m making significant progress in my rowing. We had 100 meter sprints this week on Friday. I was able to do them in 22 seconds. I was super proud of myself until I looked at my list of workout records I saved on my phone.

While I thought that 22 seconds was fast, my record is 19 seconds. Those 3 seconds aren’t much of a difference, but that record was set several months ago. I’m disappointed in myself that I haven’t improved my rowing speed at all. My form is getting a bit better, but with that I would have expected that speed would follow.

I’m really trying not to get too down about this. That record was set when we had the Monday Challenges. So I had already cooled down before doing my row. This time, my row was in the middle of the workout and my heart rate was already pretty high before doing the sprint. So comparing a middle of the workout record against a post-cool down record might not be too fair for me.

I’m really trying to make as much progress as I can each week. It’s tough not to feel like I’ve plateaued when I haven’t been able to increase my weights or treadmill speed lately. But I know that the progress will come eventually and it’s just a matter of time before I’m ready to move to the next level. And while my rowing progress has been backwards lately, that doesn’t mean that it won’t be progressing the correct way again soon.

Beyond my disappointment with my rowing speeds, this week was very successful for me. Monday’s workout was a 3G workout because of the holiday. That means that there were 3 groups in the class instead of 2 and we rotated around the room more often than usual. Personally, I like the 3G classes, but since I don’t work out doing peak times I rarely get to take them. I like switching things up more often in the class because I can’t focus on how tired I am.

The other thing that was really cool on Monday was that my coach, Brendon, was on American Ninja Warrior that night.

OTF ANW

I had wanted to go and watch it live when it recorded a few months ago, but it was on a Friday evening and I had to work early on Saturday morning. But it was great to get to see what he was able to get done!

It really inspires me that Brendon decided to challenge himself and do the show. I’ve always thought of the coaches as people who are what I hope to be as an “after”. But Brendon proved that no matter what, you can always find something else to challenge yourself and try to better yourself with.

My other two workouts were on Wednesday and Friday (no 4 workout week this week for me). Friday was my first day with a new batch of painkillers and I’m not sure if the workout or the new painkillers made me hurt more than usual, but either way I was in a lot of pain on Friday evening. I took it easy and continued to take some painkillers on Saturday as well.

I’m not sure why I’m so focused on the setbacks this week. Maybe it’s because the challenge of working out regularly is no longer a challenge for me. This is a habit now and I’m able to focus more on the little things that annoy me versus struggling to work out enough times in the week.

But as always, I’m trying to focus on the positive and know that even if I’m progressed backwards I’m still doing better than I would be doing if I wasn’t working out at all.

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Feeling Special This Workout Week (or Maybe I Influenced My Coaches)

Posted on May 25, 2015 | Comments Off on Feeling Special This Workout Week (or Maybe I Influenced My Coaches)

This past week was a really fun workout week for me. It was another 4 workout week which is good. And yes, it was another week filled with lots of rowing.

While all my workouts were really good this week, the highlights for me were on Wednesday and Thursday.

About a month ago, one of the coaches, Lal, promised me that he would take a workout class with me and be on the treadmill next to me. I’ve taken Lal’s class a bunch of times. He is my Saturday coach from time to time. But I’ve never taken a class where he was doing the workout and not as the coach.

Right after he made that promise, he hurt his arm. I completely understand injuries, but at the same time I told him that if I was injured he wouldn’t let me use that excuse. He would tell me that I could just modify what I need to so I can work around the injury (like I do with all my hip issues). He said that once his arm was better, he’d workout with me.

I saw him on Monday after my morning class and reminded him that he had made that promise to me and hadn’t fulfilled it yet. He said that he would take a Wednesday class either this week or next and he let me put his photo on my social media pages and publicly shame him and hold him accountable.

And wouldn’t you know it? It worked! Lal was in this Wednesday’s class. He didn’t let me know ahead of time so I didn’t save him the treadmill next to me (sorry Lal), but he was still there and that is what counts.

Of course after the workout I had to get a photo with him so I could let everyone know on social media that he held up his end of the bargain and nobody needed to bug him about the promise.

Lal At OTF

The next day I was back at Orangetheory for another workout. I couldn’t work out on Friday due to a screening I was attending, so I did a Thursday afternoon one. And I was so happy because Whitney was my coach! I haven’t seen Whitney in a while since she is the head coach at the Santa Monica location (which is farther for me to get to than the Brentwood one so I don’t go there). She seemed pretty excited to see me as well. In fact, she named the run/row after me.

Jen's Run:Row

This was not an easy run/row for me to do. While my rowing skills have improved so much over the past few weeks, I’m definitely a sprinter versus a distance rower. And to me sprints are usually 200 meters or less. So 250 and 500 meters aren’t that easy for me. I’m able to complete them without resting in the middle, but I really do get tired.

Also, the run (or for me walk) segment of the run/row was longer than it usually seems to be. So it really tested my endurance (which was the point) and while I didn’t get through all 4 sections I go to the final run segment and only missed doing the final row. I don’t think a majority of the class got through all the segments so I’m not too disappointed in myself. Plus, Whitney seemed pretty proud of me. I might have to start taking some Thursday classes so I can see her more often!

I also had a nice workout victory in my Saturday class. Lal was the coach then and it was another run/row day. All the row segments were 250 meters and Lal was pushing us all to do them around 50 seconds every time. I can usually get a longer sprint in for the first row but my time increases a lot over the course of the workout because I get tired and burnt out.

But I really wanted to focus on trying to be as close to 50 seconds for all my rows. I stayed between 51 seconds (my fastest) and 56 seconds (my slowest) for every row. So even though I didn’t get to 50 seconds like Lal wanted, I stayed pretty close to my fastest time each time. That’s pretty awesome for me.

I’m toying with the idea of doing 4 workouts this week too. As of right now, I’m signed up for 3 classes. I’m still waiting to see if I have to do something on Saturday afternoon, but if I don’t I might try to go for my 3rd 4 workout week in a row!

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Back To 4 Workouts (or More Rowing!)

Posted on May 18, 2015 | Comments Off on Back To 4 Workouts (or More Rowing!)

I finally had another 4 workout week. It had been about a month since my last 4 workout week, and I’m not totally sure how that happened. I’ve been trying to stay on top of getting in 4 workouts every other week, but no matter what happened I’m getting back on track this past week.

I thought with all the rowing we did last week, this would be a light rowing week.

Nope.

It wasn’t as bad as the rowing last week. All of the rowing segments were on the shorter side and some of them were just sprints.

I’m noticing that my rowing form is getting better each week. And I’m able to bend my legs in a more upright way than I did before (my legs used to have to bend more toward the side like a butterfly stretch during rowing). And I’m finally feeling like I’m able to row with very few issues caused by my hips.

I’m still struggling with getting the wattage up high enough, but that’s a tough thing to improve on. There are times where it is exactly where it needs to be, but it’s tough to maintain. So I guess I need to work on rowing stamina.

I also broke a personal rowing record. I was able to row 200 meters in 46.5 seconds! This was a new record for me, I haven’t tracked my 200 meter time in the past. And my records for 100 meters is 19.5 seconds so I’m not really sure if at one point I did 200 meters faster. All I know is for as long as I remember in my Orangetheory workouts I’ve been at about 55 seconds for 200 meters. So I’m happy with this new record!

Beyond my rowing accomplishments, I’m continuing to try to improve my strength work. Unless all the 15 pound weights are taken, I’m always using those for my arms, shoulders, and back work. And I did deadlifts this week with 25 pound weights in each hand. When I started, I was at 8 pound weights in each hand. That’s a huge improvement within the year!

My treadmill work is a bit stalled. I’m still at 3.4 miles and hour and doing my crazy inclines, but I’ve hit a bit of a wall. I can increase my inclines for my push pace (I’m currently at 10% incline), but when we have pushes that are more than a minute or two I find it too difficult. I did do 1 push pace this past week at 11% incline, but I was hurting after that. And my all-outs are at 15% incline which is the maximum incline. I’d like to increase my speed soon, but 3.5 miles an hour feels way too fast right now. So I have to be patient and maybe in a month or so I can go up to that speed.

But one of the things that I’m proudest of from the past week is how well I did with my 4 workouts. I was scared that my body had gotten too used to 3 workouts a week and that the 4th would be a big struggle. The 4th workout wasn’t easy, but it was a typically hard workout struggle and not the struggle of being too tired.

I don’t believe that I will get 4 workouts done at Orangetheory this week due to my schedule, but it’s nice to know that my body will be ok doing them from time to time when my schedule does allow it.

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